Why Are Christians Being Attacked?

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.

Watching the news in the last few weeks, I couldn’t help but wonder: Who let the dogs out? And who decided to sic them on Christians?

At the University of Virginia, the school paper, The Cavalier Daily, recently ran two cartoons that deliberately offended Christians. One, titled “A Nativity Ob-scene,” features Joseph asking Mary about a nasty rash. Mary tells him her rash was “immaculately transmitted.”

The second comic is titled “Christ on a Cartesian Plane.” It depicts the Crucifixion with a parabolic graph superimposed on the figure of Christ.

The Cavalier Daily initially refused to apologize for giving offence—even though editors apologized last year for a cartoon homosexuals found offensive. After more than two thousand angry calls and e-mails, the editors and cartoonist finally did apologize.

And then there were those charming comments from Rosie O’Donnell, speaking on the ABC TV program The View. While discussing the September 11 anniversary and the war in Iraq, O’Donnell compared “radical Christianity” to the beliefs of Islamo-fascist terrorists who murdered three thousand people on September 11. She declared, “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.”

Her comment shocked co-host Joy Behar, who said, “But Christians are not threatening to kill us. There’s that difference.” O’Donnell refused to back down.

Today even Christian vegetables are not immune to attacks. NBC recently began airing the popular VeggieTales cartoons on Saturday mornings. Each cartoon ends with a Bible verse. That is, they are supposed to. But just two weeks before the first episode was due, NBC ordered the producers of VeggieTales to edit out all biblical references. After all, they might offend people! Is this the same network that tells parents that if they are offended by prime-time sex and profanity to just turn the channel or use a V-Chip? Is this the same network that will allow Madonna to sing a song from her tour—the one she performs while suspended from a crucifix? Evidently, blasphemy and four-letter words are fine, but any positive mention of God is so offensive it has to be censored.

I may be particularly sensitive these days to religious bigotry because of what Prison Fellowship has lately endured. Last June, a federal judge shot down the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an extremely effective pre-release program for prisoners launched by Prison Fellowship. Why? Not because of what the program did, but because of who we are. And we, as he defined us, were evangelicals who could not say or do anything without intending to convert someone else.

When we Christians see our faith treated with such hostility, our blood starts to boil. But we should remember that the Church was born into a hostile environment. Throughout history, the Church has always made its most profound witness when it was under attack. Why? Because then, more than at any other time, we have the opportunity to demonstrate the unmerited love, patience, mercy, and grace of God.

Indeed, when the culture sets the dogs on us, we have a biblical responsibility to speak the truth, yes, but to speak it in love. In so doing, we provide our greatest witness and unleash the greatest power: That’s the power of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Apply today for the 2007 Centurions Program and study Biblical worldview for a year with Chuck Colson! Deadline for applications is November 30.

Read UVA Cavalier Daily artist Grant Woolard’s apology.

Kristin Hawkins, “Cavalier Daily Comics Spark Religion Controversy,” Cavalier Daily, 11 September 2006.

Zinie Chen Sampson, “UVa. Cartoonist Pulls Work off Web,” Washington Times, 16 September 2006.

Nathan Burchfiel, “UVA Paper Apologizes for Mohammed, Not Jesus,” CNS News, 13 September 2006.

Dennis Byrne, “Rosie’s Rant Won’t Work in Wheaton,” Chicago Tribune, 18 September 2006.

Mary Katharine Ham, “Rosie O’Moral Equivalence (Update: It’s Equivalence Tuesday on Today!),” Townhall.com blog, 12 September 2006.

Scott Whitlock, “Rosie O’Donnell: ‘Radical Christianity Is Just as Threatening as Radical Islam’,” NewsBusters, 12 September 2006.

Visit Phil Vischer’s blog to read more about VeggieTales on NBC.

Alex Wainer, “Same Saturday Morning Fun, Fewer Sunday Morning Values,” The Culture Beat, 15 September 2006.

L. Brent Bozell III, “Sliced and Diced ‘VeggieTales’,” Washington Times, 13 September 2006.

“Madonna Concert Special to Air on NBC,” MSNBC, 21 July 2006.

Anne Morse, “They Call It Art: The Last Acceptable Prejudice?” National Review Online, 30 May 2003.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030611, “‘The Last Acceptable Prejudice’: Princeton’s Double Standard.”

BreakPoint Commentary No. 060621, “Judging Evangelicals: Comparative Religion from the Bench.”

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030707, “How Quickly They Forget: Christians In (and Out of) the News.”